Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany won a record victory in Sunday’s election in Saxony-Anhalt but fell short of the majority it needed to govern alone, leaving the eastern state facing potentially lengthy negotiations over its next government.
The AfD won 43.8% of the vote, more than doubling its 20.8% showing in the 2021 election and marking its strongest performance in any German state election. It won 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament in Magdeburg, three short of the 42 needed for an outright majority, according to preliminary official results after all ballots were counted.
The result was a major setback for Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his center-right Christian Democratic Union, which has governed Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years. The CDU won just 17.2%, its worst result in the state and less than half of the 40 seats it secured in 2021.
The outcome also fell short of the AfD’s goal of securing enough seats to form Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II. Mainstream parties have ruled out forming coalitions with the AfD, meaning the party’s victory does not automatically translate into control of the state government.
"We have achieved exactly what we set out to achieve. We have made history in this country," AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund told public broadcaster ARD.
Siegmund, 35, said voters had sent a message that "things cannot carry on like this" and described the result as a signal to the national government in Berlin.
"A very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz," Siegmund said. "Every day this man is in the chancellery is one too many."
He said the AfD was prepared to work with politicians who supported its demands for a major change in policy, whether through a parliamentary group or individual lawmakers. If no governing arrangement could be reached, he said, "if necessary, there will just be new elections."
The AfD’s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, called the result "sensational" and said the party had received a clear mandate to govern.
But other parties quickly rejected any prospect of cooperation.
Franziska Hoppermann, the CDU’s national general secretary, said the party would maintain its refusal to work with the AfD.
"AfD is a right-wing extremist party," she said, citing its positions on the euro, Russia and German society. "We will not work with them."
The Social Democrats finished third with 9.3%, followed by the Greens with 8.9% and the Left Party with 8.6%. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW, won 5.3%, just above the threshold needed to enter parliament. The Free Democrats, who were junior partners in the outgoing state government, received 2.6% and failed to win seats.
The CDU will hold 15 seats, while the Greens, SPD and Left Party each won eight. The BSW will hold five seats.
Those numbers offer no straightforward route to a governing majority. A coalition involving the CDU, SPD and Greens would control 31 seats. Adding the Left Party would bring the total to 39, still three short of a majority.
The AfD could reach the 42-seat threshold only with support from the BSW. The BSW could potentially support an AfD-backed candidate, back a CDU candidate or abstain. Under state election rules, a third vote for governor requires only a plurality, adding another layer of uncertainty to the coalition negotiations.
Party leaders are expected to outline their positions this week, with exploratory talks likely to begin in the coming days.
Saxony-Anhalt, a state of about 2.1 million people west of Berlin, has become one of the AfD’s strongest areas of support. The party is particularly popular in the former communist east, where economic and demographic challenges have fueled discontent with Germany’s political establishment.
The AfD is the largest opposition party in Germany’s national parliament. Its rise has alarmed mainstream political parties, which have maintained a so-called firewall against cooperation with it.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has classified the AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch as a proven right-wing extremist organization. Authorities have cited what they describe as racist and ethnically based views within parts of the party, including hostility toward migrants from Muslim-majority countries.
The AfD rejects accusations of extremism and says the classifications are politically motivated.
The party has campaigned heavily on immigration, including its call for a "remigration" policy involving the deportation of immigrants. Siegmund has made what he calls a "deportation offensive" one of his priorities and has called for ending incentives that he says encourage people to come to Germany and take advantage of its social welfare system.
The party also supports allowing home schooling, which is generally not permitted in Germany, and wants to prevent schools from officially raising the rainbow flag while requiring them to display the German national flag.
On foreign policy, the AfD opposes German support for Ukraine and wants sanctions against Russia lifted, although state governments do not have the authority to determine national foreign policy.
The party has also proposed withdrawing Saxony-Anhalt from the regional public broadcaster, citing concerns about what it describes as disinformation.
The election drew unusually high interest, with turnout reaching 77.8%, compared with 60.3% in 2021. It was the highest turnout in the state since German reunification in 1990.
The result nonetheless leaves the AfD in an unusual position: It has won a commanding share of the vote but remains dependent on other parties it has sharply criticized and that have publicly rejected governing with it.
There has been a recent precedent for an AfD election victory not leading to an AfD-led government. In neighboring Thuringia, the AfD won a state election in 2024 but remained out of government after a CDU-backed minority administration took power.
Saxony-Anhalt’s next government will have significant responsibilities, as Germany’s 16 states oversee areas including education and parts of domestic security. State governments also have seats in the Bundesrat, Germany’s upper house, which must approve certain federal legislation.
Saxony-Anhalt has limited influence there because it controls just four of the Bundesrat’s 69 votes.
For Merz, the election represents another warning about the strength of the far right and a damaging result for a party that has dominated state politics for more than two decades.
